Not that long since abandoned homes were full of life
OUT AND ABOUT WITH RALPH: Visiting remote settlements in Caithness by boat gives good access in clear conditions
Local lochs, by bike and by boat. Today the wind is howling and the temperature well into double digits, and I have to look back through my photos to convince myself I was out in very different conditions just a week or two ago.
Loch Torr na Ceardaich is one of Caithness’s remoter sheets of water. In my fit days I would occasionally visit on a long cross-country running circuit of some 15 miles from Dorrery but had not been there for years.
With wind farms encroaching ever more around the Flow Country it will not be long before, even here, the sight of turning blades encroaches on a spot where there is yet no visible sign of humans other than a faint quad-bike track.
I’ve wheeled a bike all the way down that chain of five lochs from Slettil to Tuim Ghlais and plan someday a trip with paddle-board or pack-raft – but this overdue visit was to be an easier out-and-return trip by e-bike.
It was a lovely clear morning but cold, down to -5C in Halkirk with a frost on the roads. The long estate track from Shurrery can be icy but there had been little rain and it was simply hard frozen, giving much easier cycling than usual when it is soft and muddy in places.
You need concentration and some skill on these tracks which are often rutted. The sky was clear, the wind light, southwards low fog was still lifting where even colder air lingered over the Loch More area. There is a huge exhilaration in being out under the big sky of the Caithness Flows on a bracing day in February, and Loch Tuim Ghlais is one of the best places to be.
The loch was covered in a thin layer of ice, the shoreline sands hard frozen. I could have ridden on, but left the bike to enjoy the walk, the normally very boggy ground was frozen hard with glittering icicles draping the banks of peat.
A faint quad-bike track now leads all the way to Ceardaich, before turning down the infant Forss. This destination loch, too, was mostly covered in ice, a group of small ducks made the most of the one bit of clear water near the outflow.
The loch remains an utterly peaceful spot among the low rolling moors, never visited other than by the gamekeeper or the occasional estate guest. My swimming notes say “shallow and peaty” and the same for Loch an Ealach Beg, just a mile distant but more easily reached from the Forsinard side.
A milder wind was picking up but the ground remained frozen, giving an easy walk and ride back towards Shurrery. Just off the track is the old settlement of Achsteenclate, now completely ruinous but inhabited within living memory. Relatives from the south would visit by train to Scotscalder then walking over Dorrery, appearing in the distance to the delight of the children who had been watching out. Only a few scrawny trees and low walls remain.
A week or two later and a very different day on a different loch. Rarely for Caithness it was flat calm, clear and sunny. A big swell on the sea was not inviting, but Loch Calder was completely mirror-calm as you rarely see it.
I can’t remember kayaking round the loch in such conditions, blue sky and the only ripples on the water made by my paddle. It was only the end of February but the sun had a warmth to it, and even one or two fish were rising. The air remained completely still and the few white clouds were perfectly mirrored in the water.
Here too on the little-visited western side of of the loch are ruined crofts, Lower and Upper Buolloch to the north and Carriside in a delightful setting raised up on a hillock surrounded by water on three sides. There are the remains of much older settlements, brochs, chambered cairns, cists, and an incised footprint in the rock on a low hilltop.
A kayak is the ideal way to explore this remote shoreline as the ground gives very rough and wet walking. Much of the more recent forestry has now been felled, making for even harder access by land.
On such a day a boat gives you complete freedom to easily go wherever you like on the loch and just enjoy the rare conditions. The first lapwings were displaying, there were yet no primroses but early spring was certainly trying to make an appearance. Surely winter is not already over?
